Tonight we are camped at the Ice Springs in Wyoming.

It has been five days since we left Independence Rock, and we stopped at the ice springs this evening. Men are going out with shovels and buckets to get the ice that lies a foot below the surface plants. We hear some of them talking about making Mint Juleps. We are Methodists, and we don't drink hard liquor, but I can make a nice cold minty drink without the bourbon. I still have sugar from Fort Laramie, and mint in my seasonings, and the ice in the spring is free. I'll surprise James with a cool minty drink, served up in our matching hammered copper mugs that the Thompsons gave us for a wedding present. Meanwhile, I can catch up on my entries in this diary:

We are making good time on the trail. It is mid-July, and we should be over the mountains before the snows. We see such strange rock formations on this trail, given terrible names by the travelers. We passed one such place around noon after leaving Independence Rock - travelers are calling it Devil's Gate! We could see it from the trail, but the trail went around it, not through it. Here is a watercolor of Devil's Gate, by an artist who was also on the Oregon Trail:

Watercolor of Devil's Gate, by Alfred Jacob Miller, done 1858 - 1860
[see copyright note below]

 

Yesterday we crossed the Sweetwater River five times in between hills called The Narrows. 

It was so narrow between the hill and the river bank that our wagons couldn't turn around, and as the wagon train closed up on the trail behind the fords, which could take only one wagon at a time, we were in the most dreadful situation. The horns on the oxen were prodding any animals - horse, oxen or mule - that was being driven or ridden through The Narrows. The rearmost wagons came relentlessly onward, for they couldn't see around the bends in the canyon. They didn't know we were nearly stopped because of the many tight crossings, several of them very deep. Added to our misery was the sickening smell of many dead cattle, and there was no place to drag their bodies away, like we did on other parts of the trail. [Adapted from James Evans see Copyright Notes at the End]

It could have been a picturesque place, but I remember it with a shudder of fear. It seemed as if we would never get out of there! I started thinking of Psalm 23, "Even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me". Knowing that our Lord God is with us is all that gives me courage to keep going at times like this.

Artist James Wilkins sketch of the Narrows, 1849. From his book,
"An Artist on the Overland Trail". [See Footnote on copyright]

Footnote on Copyright: Works not in copyright and therefore in the public domain because they were created in the author's lifetime plus 100 years:
(James Wilkins 1808 - 1888) The Narrows, 1849,
(Alfred Jacob Miller 1810 - 1874) Devil's Gate, 1859 - 1860, The Walters Art Museum
(James Evans) Untitled Notes on Oregon Trail Journey 1850